Apologetic Golden Tate Says NASCAR Comments Were ‘Taken The Wrong Way’ But Made Out Of ‘Ignorance’

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate was a guest of SiriusXM Radio on Friday night’s “Dialed In” show to discuss his Twitter comments in which Tate said NASCAR drivers – including Jimmie Johnson – are not athletes.

Here’s a transcript of the audio SiriusXM posted on its web site. Host Claire B. Lang first asked Tate to explain his thinking:

CLAIRE B. LANG: Let’s go to the point where you’re tweeting and the ESPYs are on. Talk about what happened. Take us through it.

GOLDEN TATE: I was just kind of watching it and I saw everyone who had been nominated. First off, I’m not too familiar with NASCAR, which is my ignorance. Obviously, I should have looked up what I was going to put on the World Wide Web. So that’s on me.

I wasn’t too familiar with Jimmie Johnson. My thought process was – from afar, not knowing anything about the sport but knowing what the word ‘athletic’ meant – watching a guy drive however many miles an hour or Derrick Rose making an unbelievable play or Dirk (Nowitzki) making an unbelievable play or whoever it is, I see that as a more athletic person.

It got taken the wrong way and I got grilled, and I’m still getting grilled.

LANG: To what extent are you getting grilled? Did you feel the power of the NASCAR fan nation when you tweeted that initially? There were other tweets as well. When did you feel the power of the NASCAR nation, so to speak?

TATE: It started off as maybe a few NASCAR fans who had some experience tweeting. I was just being myself; I didn’t realize it was going to blow up the way it did.

I will say this: NASCAR fans, do not mess with them. They will eat you alive. I left my house and I’m scared I’m going to look outside and see some big number 48 and a chainsaw. I’m nervous (seems to be joking).

But no, after that, I will say that I read up on it and educated myself, and I will say that (drivers) are incredible people to do that. Like I said, I couldn’t sit in the car for two hours; I can’t even stand going on road trips – let alone being in the car for five hours, going 200 miles, having other cars trying to send you back on the trailer.

After reading up on it, I do have some respect and I do want to apologize to the NASCAR nation. They are very, very, very strong.